How to End Your Anxiety About Your Future

We live in an anxious world driven by too many demands and expectations. Our fear of rejection or humiliation (often repressed) is a major source of anxiety. Anxiety is a state of mind that effects your body and our attempt to avoid feeling anxious is the result of many uncontrollable addictive responses. Anxiety fills your mind when you have repressed your emotions for an extended period of time. It is usually caused from repressed fears about your future and how you relate to the future.

Fear is one of the biggest obstacles that strangulates the hearts and minds of humankind. Fear of the fear is rooted in the fear of the unknown and continually threatens us with what seems like never-ending crisis, chaos and self-doubt. Unresolved fears about your future creates restlessness, addictive responses, sluggish metabolism and even insomnia.

This article will help you to overcome anxiety by understanding how your fear of the future is causing you frustration and pain today. I will outline a powerful step-by-step method to transform your fear of the future into personal power. Genuine healing begins when you take responsibility for your fear and become more conscious of your relationship to your emotional nature.

Most people ignore their fear or pretend they don't have any fear. Some people have even repressed their fear so completely that they honestly don't feel anything but apathy or indifference. When fear is repressed for an extended period of time it will eventually avalanche into a negative crisis in your life. It often feels as if “All Hell’s Breaking Loose”.

Our world is now more anxious than ever and is dealing with a crisis of unresolved fear and hope toward the future. Fear of the future is at epidemic levels in our world and by transforming your own personal fears, there is less fear in the world. In order to successfully transform your fear you must learn these five secrets to personal freedom.

5 Secrets to Transform Fear into Personal Power.

SECRET #1: Fear always has impact on your mind, even when you ignore it. Fear thrives on ignorance. This awareness changed my life, when I understood that even if I don't consciously "feel" any fear, it is still vibrating inside my mind and has negative influence in my life, whether I feel it or ignore it. Everyone has fear to some degree and the first secret to be free is to own your fear of the future.

Being Conscious. Becoming more conscious of the choices you have and the decisions you're making is a vital step toward self empowerment. We've learned since childhood to numb ourselves emotionally. We become addicted to almost anything (food, alcohol, cigarettes or even drugs) in an attempt to avoid feeling our true emotions, especially fear. It is time to face your fears and take back the power that is hidden inside of it. You are ready to wake up and experience a deeper healing within your emotional nature that can change the course of your future.

SECRET #2 Fear can be a positive emotion in your life. It’s important to change the way you think and feel about your fear so you can heal your relationship to it. Most people assume fear or anger is a “negative emotion”. It is not. Your relationship to fear maybe negative, but not the fear itself. Fear is a constricting emotion and feels uncomfortable, but it’s purpose is to offer you guidance and feedback. Fear can become a personal teacher, protector and motivator in your life, when you are conscious of your relationship to it and listen to its message. When you deny, ignore and distract yourself from fear the consequences of this action always produces negativity in your life. You end up in crisis, confusion and self-doubt. Denying your fear (or any emotion) is a negative action and keeps you feeling powerless and triggers your addictive responses.

SECRET #3 You don’t have to be afraid of your fear. Fear slows you down. Fear says, you’d better be careful, you’re going too fast. Slow down and consider other possibilities. Love is the accelerator (moving you forward) and fear is the brakes. Would you want to drive a car ( or live your life) with only an accelerator? Wouldn’t it be wiser to have the ability to slow down, pause and even sometimes be able to stop? Begin to value your fear as a helpful guide in your life. You don’t have to be afraid of your fear when you own its value and relationship to love.

SECRET #4 The fear of the future exists only in your mind. The only way to connect with your future is through your imagination. Nothing exists within the physical world without first existing in the imagination. Your imagination is the womb of all creation, everything that exists physically begins in someones imagination. Think about it. The clothes you’re wearing, the computer in front of you, everything had to exist in the imagination before it could exist in the physical world. The same is true with your future – it always begins in your mind, specifically your imagination. Refusing to imagine or dream about a positive future can create unnecessary feelings of powerlessness, anxiety and stress. For many it is easier to imagine what could go wrong (negative) in the future versus what could go right (positive).

Don't wait to see what your future brings, create it now. Most people resist thinking about and planning their futures. This inertia stems from a feeling of powerlessness and a belief that the future is out of our control. Empowered individuals don’t wait to see what the future holds, they focus their mind on a vision of the future and imagine it. They focus on “what could go right” versus worrying about "what could go wrong". They don't ignore "what could go wrong" they process through those feelings and take their power back from any negative potential. In many ways, they extract the raw energy from the negative to build a more positive expectation for their future and it shows in their attitudes, actions and what they experience in life.

What vision of the future do you hold in your mind? Without a vision, anxiety can build and feed your fears, keeping those fears alive and attracting more negative experiences in your life. It is vital to begin thinking, imagining and feeling the promise of a future that is positive. Your relationship to your future is were peace of mind begins. How you relate to your future, effects your current reality – right now – immediately. Fear comes out of the unknown, the unknown possibilities of the future.

The unknown (future) always has both positive and negative possibilities. It is up to you to be conscious of the negative possibilities so you can dismantle those negative futures and begin to feed and energize the positive ones. What you pay attention too, expands. You strengthen the positive futures by consciously visualizing and dreaming what you desire to happen rather than what your afraid will happen

SECRET #5 It's easier to imagine a negative versus a positive future.
We are so bombarded with negative messages from life, media, other people that it becomes the path of least resistance to be seduced by fear and negativity about the future. For example, If I were to ask you, "What could go wrong on Monday morning?" You could probably list out many potential negative circumstances in a few minutes, yet if I were to ask you "What could go right on Monday morning" you would have fewer responses and perhaps take longer to think of them.

Simply put fear has captured our attention and imagination, making it more challenging to visualize a positive future. It takes awareness and effort at first, but once you change your relationship to fear, the positive future will be easier to imagine. You will have shifted and lifted your focus from negative to positive and your life will begin to soar.

Realize that by ignoring or denying your fear you are giving it attention, a part of your mind is always repressing the fear in order for you to ignore and distract yourself from it. Denial is feeding it energy on a subconscious level. Avoidance never resolves your personal negativity. Our ego likes to avoid negativity and seeks the “simple answer” and will run and hide from anything negative or unpleasant, erroneously thinking it is "being positive." Avoidance is always born of fear. Love seeks to understand your fears, so you can transform them.

One of the most common reasons people avoid thinking about their future is for the fear of disappointment. Most people are afraid of disappointment. They don’t want to get their 'hopes up'. Nobody likes to feel disappointed. "What if I visualize a positive future and it doesn't happen, I'll be disappointed!" That is a risk you have to take, there isn't a guarantee, however by feeding your attention to 'what you do want' and energizing that in your mind can tip the scales in a positive direction. To deny hope because you might be disappointed, only keeps you stuck in the negative potential for your future.

Many people erroneously believe that how they relate (think and feel) about their future doesn't have impact on them right now. It does, it provides hope, focus, direction and changes how you feel about yourself in the present moment. Anxiety is often caused by a undefined relationship to your future.

Ponder these five secrets and let yourself journal and meditate on them. When you are ready you can do the following technique to help change the course of your future by overcoming your fear of the future and transforming fear into greater freedom and personal empowerment.
Overcoming Fear: How to Change the Course of Your Future:

1. Write down your positive (hopeful-light) future.
What is your personal dream? What is the most positive future you can imagine for yourself? Expand the joyful possibilities in your heart and mind, feel it in your Soul. How would greater love express itself in your life? Think about having more joy, peace and success in your life. What kind of relationships will you have? Career? Financial security? Spiritual fulfillment? Open your mind and heart to dream of the possibilities! Don't hold yourself back, dream big! Then when you are ready move to step 2.

2. Write down your negative (dark) future.
Think about, feel and face your greatest fears. What are your personal fears about the future? What negative events could possibly happen to you: Illness, pain, homelessness, cancer, rejection abandonment, humiliation? Confront and examine the fear-based futures your ego is harboring. This important step is to bring your fear into your consciousness so you can take your power back! When you write it onto paper you are beginning the process of releasing the fear from your mind. It may feel uncomfortable but it is an important and healing step.

3. Unplug the negative future and activate the positive one.
This third step is a meditative technique. Set the intention to unplug the power of your fear and give the energy to your positive future. Close your eyes and imagine a bubble hovering in front of you. It resembles a large crystal ball and inside is all the energy and images of the negative fear-based future. Imagine your worst fears manifesting and everything going wrong in your life. Let yourself feel and experience the fear and panic, the sorrow and pain. Get involved imaginatively and emotionally. What you can feel you can heal! When you can't stand it anymore, say out loud, "NO! I refuse to create this future... I am NOW taking my power back from this fear!”

4. Visualize that anxious fear-filled future growing weaker and falling apart.
Your subconscious mind will understand and help you as you imagine this scene. Watch the fear-filled future images fading, growing weaker and smaller as you take the energy out of that possibility. While still in meditation, envision popping the dark bubble that contains your fear-based future. Destroy the bubble, release the energy trapped inside, held captive by your old fears. Take in several deep breaths and imagine you are retrieving the power and energy that was trapped inside your fear. Fear renders you feeling powerless because it entraps some of your power. You will have taken back your power and feel this energy begin to expand inside of you.

5. Empower your positive future. Next, create another shimmering bubble of light and hope (the positive future). Step into this welcoming bubble and visualize the most beautiful, successful, and loving future you can. Remember what you wrote about the positive future you desire to create for yourself. Imagine you have resolved all of your problems and are joyously living out your destiny. You don't need to imagine the details as much as you need to feel the expanding energy of this positive future. Feel the joy, gratitude and love vibrating within this future. Energize yourself with this positive energy. Spend as much time inside of this bubble, let it heal your mind of your fears of disappointment.

6. Connect with your future self. Inside this bubble, begin to visualize and connect with your future self. Imagine how you would like to be in the future: confident, secure, trusting, abundant, happy, successful, and at peace. You don't need to know what you will be "doing" as much as deciding how you are going to be... your "being.” I want to BE happy, free, alive, secure, healthy, and vibrant. Choose your state of being first then allow the formation (the doing) to manifest in alignment with your destiny.

7. Return. Take in a deep breath and when you are ready you can open your eyes and return from the meditation. Know that you will have shifted the course of your future and the events that will manifest in your life.

Overcoming anxiety and fear involves ending procrastination of waiting to see what your future holds, decide to create it instead by using this technique. Both potentials – the positive and the negative futures– are possible. Personal power comes from conscious choice. Consciously choose to create your personal dream. Choice is always available. You can change the way you relate to fear by finally stopping your pattern of ignoring it and decide to transform it and your future. You can make new powerful choices and finally be free of your fears about the future. As you take back the power trapped inside of your fear, you can know that you are more powerful than your fears and begin living a more enriched and empowered life.

© Copyright 2006 by Circle of Light Publishing and Michaiel Patrick Bovenes